


fifty

by yourealwaysmine



Category: Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: Birthdays, Friendship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-01
Updated: 2011-08-01
Packaged: 2017-10-22 01:58:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/232462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourealwaysmine/pseuds/yourealwaysmine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>on viggo's fiftieth birthday. for tarte.<br/>february 2006.</p>
            </blockquote>





	fifty

he doesn't feel old. the only bones that ache are ones that have been broken. his memory is actually better than it was in his childhood. and his eyesight is still practically perfect.

so, viggo doesn't feel old.

"you know, vig, they say fifty is the new thirty."

viggo doesn't take his eyes off the road. the big old truck has a tendency to veer to the left when the driver stops paying attention. it needs a wheel-alignment badly. "who says that?"

dom gestures toward the windshield, implying the world outside. "them. the blokes in the white tower who decide things."

"what does that even mean?" he signals to change lanes to pass a slow-moving sedan in front of them.

"nothing. just, fifty-year-old men are now as healthy and virile as their thirty-year-old counterparts."

viggo considers this. "i would hate to be thirty again."

viggo can practically hear dom's smirk. "well, now. you don't have to worry about that, do you?"

~

viggo raises the tent without incident, and dom makes several treks into the patch of forest just behind the campground to retrieve damp wood to line the coal pit. viggo notices the color coming up in dom's cheeks as the sallow grime of la gives way to the healthy flush of clean air. he must have been staring, because dom startles him.

"do you want to help get the tackle boxes out of the truck, or are you going to stand there all afternoon?"

viggo snaps back to the present, and goes for his fishing gear.

~

after a dinner of trout that dom had grilled, they settle around the small fire for s'mores.

"do you suppose there are bears out here?"

"some," viggo responds, as he smashes marshmallow into melted chocolate. "why?"

"no reason, really. just basic camping-bears anxieties."

dom busies his hands with constructing another s'more.

"this is a fairly heavily camped area," viggo says. "there are probably more bears that you'd expect in this part of the state"

"well, then, i feel loads better. thanks."

viggo tips his head, and can't fully suppress the laughter that comes.

they melt and eat more s'mores, and viggo eventually lays back in the grass to look at the stars. dom comes over to lay down beside him, and viggo can feel dom's body heat.

amidst the noise of the nocturnal forest chorus, dom's mobile phone suddenly sounds a chiming alarm at midnight.

dom's face is very close when he turns to viggo, "it's your birthday."

viggo starts to say 'thank you,' but instead he says "do you ever wish you were with someone your own age?"

dom sighs. "we already discussed that. they say you are my own age."

"dom."

a long silent moment passes, before dom gets up and climbs onto viggo, looming over him on hands and knees. "i am serious. i've been with someone my own age. and she lied to me and broke my heart, " he says forcefully.

viggo winces - he hadn't meant to make dom think of evie. "fuck, i'm sorry, dom..."

"no. don't apologize. that's not important now. you just have to remember that the life you've lived for fifty years is why you're the viggo i love now." dom touches his palm to viggo's chest, over his heart. "i wouldn't love the thirty-year-old viggo like this."

viggo feels quieted in the face of dom's uncommon honesty. dom kisses him, blocking his view of the night sky, with a press of marshmallow-sticky lips and the rough brush of his unshaven cheeks. dom slides his tongue against viggo's for the briefest moment, and he tastes of chocolate, sharp and bittersweet.

"happy birthday, viggo."

"thank you."


End file.
